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Asserting OG
Carney has made an interesting move. He invited King Charles to open the new session of parliament with an official Speech From The Throne. The clear message in gangster terms is “We are still part of the old gang, and still under the protection of the old gang. Your upstart gang rebelled and claimed some…
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First answer, second answer
Continuing from previous item. The tech tyrants assure us that reshoring is impossible because an iphone would have to cost three times as much if we made it here. First answer: Well, houses already cost three times as much as they should, and you’re not arguing with house prices. You didn’t prevent Larry Fink from…
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Reality vs reality TV
“Conservatives” are reading the script of Trump’s fake reality TV show, parroting Dear Leader’s fake criticism of China. In fact we handed China our mines, factories, engineer training, and business training. Then we shut down our own mines, factories and schools. China was BOUND to succeed when it owned all the ingredients that formerly led…
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Post office podcast
The Postal Service has a long series of podcasts. They’ve been producing these half-hour programs for 4 years; I just now heard about it. Great listening for an analog fan and an FDR fan. The post office is one of the best parts of the mainly fucked federal government, true to the FDR spirit. It…
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Tally sticks
= = = = = MEDIEVAL METROLOGY PART 2 = = = = = In the first part of Medieval Metrology I showed a medieval ruler for measuring length, as used by the ale tasters. It was notched in fractional parts but not numbered. The ruler bears a close resemblance to the medieval way of…
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Then vs now
An editorial from a trade journal of commercial radio operators, July 1931. I’ll put 1931 in italics, then answer with 2025. All of the facts are essentially the same, but the details are different in some cases. The more I ponder over the reasons for the depression the more perplexed I become. In 1929 we…
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Another phonograph puzzle
One of the analog tech fans featured the Sony Flamingo. It was a marketing flop; apparently it didn’t work well and people didn’t like putting records in vertically. Raises yet another question about the history of the phonograph. When cylinders were replaced by disks around 1915, why weren’t the disks vertical, with a threaded gear…
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Deserves a serious answer
Question in the bitcoin-skeptic section of Reddit, titled ‘A genuine good faith question’. = = = = = START QUOTE: I’m a huge crypto skeptic. But I see that a core principle here is the belief that blockchain as a concept or technology (unrelated to BTC) is useless or a “scam”. My question is, why…
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Nulling the balance
After midnight last Thursday I was in the living room screwing around with courseware. Suddenly I heard a scary noise CLOSE to the window, something like sliding and squeaking. It lasted for two minutes. It couldn’t have been an animal, but it didn’t make sense. After daylight I went out to look, and found that…
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Who invented the long-d ditto?
Earlier I named and described the long-d ditto, a common practice in pen and ink business records. The standard computer keyboard, and the conventions of digital writing, have brought several punctuation marks into common use. @ and # are most obvious. Oddly, both were essentially obsolete, a vestige of quaint business usage along with pr,…
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More random meandering
Thinking about AI’s trouble with simple binary logic. It shouldn’t happen in a computer, since computers ARE simple binary logic all the way through. But real life is mostly analog, mostly positive or negative CHANGES from a center. There have been attempts to capture this in mechanical logic, but most don’t really work. In college…
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Breaking from the cult
New Scientist mag continues to break away from current fashions required for tenure and grants. In this article they point out a deal-breaking problem with AI crap when used for medical purposes. Computers have been visually reading text for a LONG time. For instance, the Post Office was routinely using OCR in the 1970s. So…
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Metrology Day 2025
Today is Metrology Day, so I’ll maintain my long tradition. = = = = = MEDIEVAL METROLOGY PART 1 = = = = = This year I’m focusing on the medieval way of thinking as illuminated by Sherri Olson. Medieval villages embodied Natural Law. = = = = = REVIEWING: The Almighty has created this…
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Bravo TVA!!!
TVA was the New Deal’s prime mover in rural electrification. The related REA was starting to work toward small nuclear reactors in 1954! Now TVA is finally making good on the old promise. = = = = = START QUOTE: The nation’s largest public power company, the Tennessee Valley Authority, announced Tuesday it submitted a…
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Blog rule
One of my firm blog rules: When I see a Crosley or a Bantam I have to post it! From Billboard mag in 1948, Tower Records was using a pretty girl in a Crosley as a sales ambassador. Leads to another random thought. GM is always considered the Styling Leader. In fact it was the…
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